Father: A Bluebird's Resurrection Prequel
by AngelG93
Summary: This one-shot explains the setup of my visual novel "Bluebird's Resurrection" (not yet made) that's a semi-sequel to "Bluebird's Illusion". I construct an alternate universe that's basically a mash-up of 2003!FMA and Brotherhood, with a sinister twist to hold them together. K for dark themes.


_**Father: A **_**Bluebird's Resurrection**_** Prequel**_

_**by AngelG93**_

* * *

A/N: This is a one-shot in which I will attempt to make sense of the _Bluebird's Illusion_-based universe I will be using in my soon-to-come visual novel _Bluebird's Resurrection_. It's basically a mash-up of the _2003!FMA_ version and the manga_/Brotherhood_ version. I don't know how the creators of the game tried to explain their set-up, so I'm making up my own. A few things won't make perfect sense, but… I'm afraid you'll just have to deal with it. This is fiction; not everything has to make perfect sense.

The first section somewhat bluntly and informally presents some aspects of this AU: which alchemical principles hold true in which situations, etc. The rest of it is Hohenheim's story (in stream-of-consciousness style for the most part), because – in case you didn't know – HE'S THE BAD GUY IN _BBI_, and thus, in _BBR_. So, I came up with an explanation for how all of that works. Fun stuff…

With that, enjoy!

* * *

This AU mainly follows alchemy as dictated by The Portal of Truth (as opposed to The Gate). However, Homunculi are created by alchemists attempting Human Transmutation, not by Father's spirit split into pieces. They do have a Philosopher's Stone at their core, which they can enhance by consuming additional Stones (what 2003!FMA calls "Red Stones"). Because there is no "other side of The Gate" business, Homunculi _are_ capable of performing alchemy; it's just that Father (yes, the _BBI/BBR_ world has Father, not Dante) never taught them just in case they rebelled against him (like Greed did).

The lineup of Homunculi is: **Envy** – who was Hohenheim's son back in Xerxes, **Lust** – who was that Ishvalan woman Scar and his brother loved, **Gluttony** – I have no explanation for him, **Greed** – I have no explanation for him in this AU because Dante doesn't exist in it, **Wrath** – Fuhrer King Bradley, and **Sloth** – who was Trisha Elric. BUT, in the battle that takes place in the Homunculi's lair at the end of _BBI_, Mustang kills Lust and Wrath (I don't know if that's what actually happens in the game or not, but that's what I'm working with). Greed's run off, but he might appear in the game. And then, of course… Edward becomes **Pride**.

Is that it? Hmm… yeah, I think so. If I missed something, I'll explain it in context. On to Hohenheim's tale!

* * *

Many, many years ago, I was a simple slave in the capital city of Xerxes. Sometimes, I wonder if I should have just stayed there, lived out my mundane life as a nameless person, as property. Even if that would have been the wiser path, that's not what happened.

"Young man… Hey! You there!"

I had dozed off while cleaning my master's alchemical laboratory. Realizing my error, I gasped. "Oh, no!"

"It's all right," said the voice that had woken me. I looked around in search of the call, but only when it added, "Look. Over here," did I finally locate it: a circular flask containing a fuzzy black mass.

"Um, yeah?" I asked, not sure what to say.

"Hey, now," said the strange thing, sounding slightly offended. "Can't you at least bring yourself to act a little surprised or something?"

As a young slave, I saw little incentive in getting excited over a large dust ball. "What do I get for acting surprised?"

"Mm… you show no fear," intoned the being in the flask. "I like that. What's your name?"

"I'm Number 23," I responded automatically.

"Not your number," dismissed the creature, "I want you to tell me your real name."

"I'm a slave," I replied dispassionately. "I don't have one."

"A slave?" it questioned. "You mean a person without any rights or freedoms, someone trafficked and deeded as a possession?"

I tilted my head, baffled by the fancy words. "'Deeded'? What's that?"

"It's when a piece of property is transferred to another person."

This explanation was wasted on me. "Huh?"

The thing chuckled. "Seems you're not all that bright, are you?"

"Hey, get outta here!" I retorted, my young temper getting the better of me.

"How could I possibly have been born from someone as stupid as you?"

The question confused me even further. "Hmm?"

"You are the one who gave me blood, right?" encouraged the black mass.

Suddenly, things made more sense to me. "I guess so," I replied, looking at my bandaged left forearm. "He said he was going to use it for an experiment."

"I exist today… because you gave me your blood. Thank you." It paused before continuing, completely changing the topic, "Let's see. 'Number 23' isn't going to cut it. I think I'll give you a name of your own."

"Give me a name?" I scoffed. "Who are you?"

"You'll want a noble-sounding one, right?" the being rambled, ignoring my comment. "Let's see… 'Theo.' 'Theophrastus Bombastus.'"

"That's too long," I objected.

"Hmm? Oh yeah… you're not that smart. Maybe we shouldn't put too many syllables in it."

"Hey, you! I'm plenty smart!"

"Well…" the creature mused, "how about 'Van'? 'Van Hohenheim.' How does that sound?"

"So, 'Van Hohenheim,' huh?" I mulled it over. "I think I can remember that."

"It's spelled... oh. You don't know how to read and write, do you?"

"I don't need to read or write to do my work," I retorted, defending my ignorance.

"Your slave work," the black mass emphasized, giving me pause. "Don't you even want freedom? Are you going to live out the rest of your life as a slave, without the rights of a real man? In that case, you're no different from me, trapped inside this stuffy flask." Seeing the effect its words had produced in my expression, it offered, "Let me teach you, Van Hohenheim."

For a few moments, I could only gape in disbelief at this mysterious shade. At last, I found my voice. "Hey. What are you? Who are you? What do I call you?"

Tiny arms of shadow unwound themselves from the black mass, and a single red eye gazed at me from the center of the creature as it flashed me a white, toothy grin. "I'll tell you what, Van Hohenheim. You can call me 'The Dwarf in the Flask' – 'Homunculus.'"

* * *

The Dwarf in the Flask gave me so much more than just a name. It gave me knowledge in any number of subjects, but most importantly in alchemy. After that, I earned my freedom through these newfound skills. I married, but my young wife perished bringing our first son into the world. My poor boy… he was so frail. By the time he reached nineteen, he and I both knew he wasn't long for this world. Desperate to save him, I buried myself in alchemical research, but all this brought about was an unnecessary separation between us. I wasn't even at his side when he finally passed.

While my life continued, the Dwarf in the Flask had made an offer of immortality to the King of Xerxes. It would cost the lives of many, but the King's word was not to be questioned. On the day the transmutation circle that would grant him eternal life was activated, the truth of the Homunculus's plan came to light. Instead of preserving the King, that demon that had been born of my blood took all the lives of Xerxes for itself. Well… that's not quite accurate. Using the power of hundreds of thousands of souls, it formed a potent Philosopher's Stone, broke free of its flask, and entered my body. The pain of that union… I can't even begin to describe it.

What occurred after that isn't clear to me. It was a struggle between my soul and its spirit, and the match was surprisingly even. The Homunculus told me it sought perfection and knowledge, and that, if I allowed it the use of my body, it could grant all my desires. Well, in my desperate and confused state, that didn't seem so bad. I relented. My first request was the resurrection of my son, but… it wasn't what I expected. The Homunculus explained to me that the grotesque thing we had transmuted would take the familiar form of my boy soon enough, as long as I made more Philosopher's Stones to feed it.

Unfortunately, my revived child held a bitter resentment toward me. I suppose I shouldn't blame him, seeing as how I neglected him in his final days. Not long after he regained a human form, the young homunculus I had created disappeared. Without him, I was lost. I stepped back and let the Dwarf in the Flask do as he wished. Centuries passed, blurring into a long, unbroken hell. The being I had initially considered as an intruder in my body became more and more like a part of me. It and I were two halves of a whole, no longer truly distinguishable from one another. It directed the formation of an entire country, Amestris, all for the purpose of developing more Stones and seeking the knowledge that the Homunculus believed would help itself reach perfection. It also encouraged the creation of other homunculi, selecting abandoned children and reviving them as its servants (only to destroy them again once they'd served their purposes). The acts it committed with my hands… I can hardly stand the mere thought of them.

And then… I met her.

Trisha.

Her effect upon me was immediate. She kept the monster away, kept that other side of me from coming out. Other than the frozen state of my age, I became fully human again. Those… those years with Trisha were the happiest times of my agonizingly long life.

But, only a few years after our second son was born, I began to feel the Homunculus resurface. I knew that I didn't have much time before he would take control again, so… I left. I asked Trisha to wait for me; I wanted her to hope that I would come back to her. Forgive me, my love. I condemned you to a short life, pining away for a man who could not return to you, no matter how much he wanted to.

The son I had transmuted into a homunculus returned to me not long after that. Needless to say, he was furious when he discovered I had remarried and sired two other sons. He probably would have killed all three of them if the Dwarf in the Flask had not intervened. It radiated a power that my first son couldn't help but follow. For that, I was truly grateful. As it turned out, my boy had not come back alone. He had found others like himself, and, together, they had formed a band of sorts, each of them taking the name of one of the Seven Deadly Sins of Man. My son had become Envy, and his new companions were Greed and Gluttony. They seemed drawn to me, or, rather, to the monster that lived in me, calling me "Father" and obeying my orders. The puppet-ruler my darker half had shaped as Amestris's Fuhrer assumed the name Wrath, and, in the next few years, two more came to us: Lust and Sloth.

Sloth… I happened upon her quite by accident. I had begged my way into secretly visiting my family, and I found her in my house. I also noticed one of the suits of armor I had collected was missing, but it would later be accounted for. I remember wondering what this newborn homunculus could be doing in my home, but the Dwarf in the Flask pressured me to take her and leave, so I did. As she regained a human form, my worst fear was realized. She was Trisha, my beautiful wife, brought back from the dead. I had lost and recovered her without even knowing it. When she could finally speak, she told me that our two sons had been the catalysts of her resurrection. I would have pressed her for more answers, but the Dwarf in the Flask wouldn't allow it.

Over six years have passed since then. My ability to have any influence over my body has decreased steadily, and the line between homunculus and human grows ever fainter. I spend almost all of my time beneath the Central City of Amestris, controlling the country without its knowledge.

Or, at least, most of it. My two human sons, so relentless in their pursuit of the restoration of their bodies – the bodies they had nearly destroyed when reviving their mother… they found me out. Well, Edward did. He hated me even more than Envy did, I think. Seeing him in that state of disrepair, of desperation, I made a second request of the Dwarf in the Flask. I wanted it to restore my sons' bodies. However, it twisted this desire against me, offering Edward the chance to return Alphonse, his treasured younger brother, to a human body (the transmutation had left him as a disembodied soul that Edward had attached to a suit of armor, the one that I had noticed was missing). I remember the look in my son's golden eyes: after so many years of searching, he doubted his ability to accomplish such a feat on his own. He accepted. The Dwarf in the Flask then did something unspeakable: instead of recovering Alphonse's body from the Portal of Truth (the facilitator and governing force of alchemy), it created an exact replica and transferred my youngest son's soul into it. Edward, not knowing of this deceit, was entirely convinced and took his disoriented brother home. But, I knew better. That shell, however similar to Alphonse it appeared, could not house his soul forever. My darker half had laid a trap for Edward, and he had unwittingly walked right into it.

Inevitably, the fake body began to break down, and Edward returned, begging for me to save Alphonse. Oh, how the monster inside me relished his groveling. It gave him all kinds of empty promises in return for more and more of his service. Somehow, repercussions I hadn't foreseen changed everything. Edward seemed to think he could trick me just as I had tricked him, and - just when he was about to help the Homunculus achieve its goal of drawing power from the Portal of Truth - he double-crossed us, refusing to comply. Envy, having had enough of Edward stealing my attention, used this act of rebellion as an invitation for him to kill his half-brother. Alphonse, as well as Edward's commanding officer, General Mustang, found our lair beneath Central Command and came to rescue Edward, destroying Lust on the way. But sill, by the time they reached us, Envy had nearly beaten my poor son to death. There was another fight, and just as Envy was about to land a fatal blow on Edward, Alphonse jumped in the way. I… I had never heard Edward scream before that moment. As the elder brother held the younger in his arms, Mustang fell prey to one of Wrath's attacks, but managed to defeat his opponent before collapsing. Things were so out of control at that point; I wanted to intervene, but the monster bade me to be still. Distraught by how his brother and commander were being cut down in front of him, Edward lashed out with the Philosopher's Stone I had given him to complete the Dwarf in the Flask's orders. The resulting transmutation set off an alchemical reaction to destroy the entire chamber. Envy slipped away, leaving the three humans to their fate; Alphonse was dying, and Edward wasn't far behind him. Nevertheless, my brave, strong son used the last fragments of the Stone to heal General Mustang and pull Alphonse's true body from the Portal, ensuring the survival of his rescuers. Edward handed an unconscious Alphonse to Mustang and, knowing that the man could only possibly carry one of the brothers, told him to get out, to leave _him_ behind. Mustang tried to sway him, but, Edward sealed himself inside the imploding chamber, leaving the general no choice but to honor his final request and depart with my youngest child.

When the dust settled, I knew Edward's body must have been crushed beneath the rubble. The loss of another son threatened to rend what remained of my mind to shreds. I didn't want his life to end there; I wanted him to have another chance.

And so, I made a third request of the Homunculus who had consumed my soul.

* * *

A/N: Next eventual stop, _Bluebird's Resurrection_! Thanks for persevering through my rambling.

This is my first time to torture Hohenheim so severely… it's a lot harder than tormenting Edward, I must say.

Please note that I wrote this from about 11:00 PM to 1:30 AM. Hopefully, that didn't impair my writing ability _too_ badly.


End file.
